Robert F. Kennedy shot - Jun 05, 1968 - HISTORY.com Robert F. Kennedy shot Publisher A+E Networks At 12:50 a.m. PDT, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a presidential candidate, is shot three times in a hail of gunfire in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Five others were wounded. The senator had just completed a speech celebrating his victory in the California presidential primary. The shooter, Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan, had a smoking .22 revolver wrested from his grip and was promptly arrested. Kennedy, critically wounded, was rushed to the hospital, where he fought for his life for the next 24 hours. On the morning of June 6, he died. He was 42 years old. On June 8, Kennedy was buried at Arlington National Cemetery, also the final resting place of his assassinated older brother, President John F. Kennedy. Robert Kennedy, born in Brookline, Massachusetts, in 1925, interrupted his studies at Harvard University to serve in the U.S. Navy during World War II.

He was legal counsel for various Senate subcommittees during the 1950s and in 1960 served as the manager of his brother’s successful presidential campaign. Appointed attorney general by President Kennedy, he proved a vigorous member of the cabinet, zealously prosecuting cases relating to civil rights while closely advising the president on domestic and foreign issues. After Kennedy’s assassination in 1963, he joined President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration but resigned in 1964 to run successfully in New York for a Senate seat. Known in Congress as an advocate of social reform and defender of the rights of minorities, he also voiced criticism of the war in Vietnam. In 1968, he was urged by many of his supporters to run for president as an anti-war and socially progressive Democratic. Hesitant until he saw positive primary returns for fellow anti-war candidate Eugene McCarthy, he announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination on March 16, 1968. Fifteen days later, President Johnson announced that he would not seek reelection, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey became the key Democratic hopeful, with McCarthy and Kennedy trailing closely behind.

Kennedy conducted an energetic campaign and on June 4, 1968, won a major victory in the California primary. He had won five out of six primaries and seemed a shoo-in for the Democratic nomination and, some thought, the presidency. Shortly after midnight, he gave a victory speech to his supporters in the Ambassador Hotel and then, while making his way to a press conference by a side exit, was fatally wounded by Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. Sirhan was arrested at the scene and indicted for first-degree murder. A mentally unstable drifter, his motives in killing Kennedy have never been clear. Some journalists have alleged that Sirhan was part of a larger assassination conspiracy, supposedly brought on by Kennedy’s promise to end the Vietnam War if elected president. These conspiracists cite forensic evidence and witness testimony that they say proves the existence of additional shooters who were not detained. In 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was convicted and sentenced to die. In 1972, his death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment when the California Supreme Court abolished the death penalty. Since 1983, he has repeatedly been denied parole by prison officials who consider him a serious threat to public safety.

More on This Topic 1968: Robert F. Kennedy Assassinated - YouTube 1968: Robert F. Kennedy Assassinated Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Jun 5, 2012 News report from June 5, 1968: Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in California following the state's Presidential Primary. Category Senator Robert F. Kennedy Assassination FBI - Los Angeles County District Attorney Files Senator Robert F. Kennedy Assassination FBI - Los Angeles County District Attorney Files 14,321 pages of FBI and Los Angeles County District Attorney files, covering the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy, archived on CD-ROM. Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was born on March 19, 1944, in Jerusalem, Palestine. Sirhan was the fifth son of Bishara and Muzher (Mary) Sirhan.

When Sirhan was twelve, his family received visas to enter the United States as Palestinian refugees. On the evening of June 2, 1968, Senator Robert Kennedy had given a speech at the Palm Terrace Room of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Prior to the Senator's speech on the evening of June 2, William Blurae, who had worked as a stock boy in a liquor store located next door to an organic health food store where Sirhan Sirhan had worked the few months previous to that date, says he observed Sirhan in the lobby area adjacent to the Palm Terrace Room. Mrs. Miriam Davis, a hostess for the Kennedy event that night, was walking around the hotel twenty minutes after the speech when she says she observed Sirhan seated in the kitchen area. After the Senator's speech on June 2, Kennedy had passed through the kitchen area. On the morning of June 4, 1968, California primary election day, Sirhan signed in at the San Gabriel Valley Gun Club located on Fish Canyon Road in Duarte. He wrote "Sirhan Sirhan" and the address 696 East Howard Street, Pasadena, on the roster.

After Sirhan had fired awhile on the shooting range, he told the range master, Edward Buckner, "I want the best box of shells you have, and I want some that will not misfire. I got to have some that will not misfire," according to Buckner. Buckner then sold Sirhan a box of shells, and Sirhan resumed shooting, engaging in rapid fire shooting, using a .22 revolver, remaining on the range till 5:00 p.m. Earlier in the year, Sirhan had had a conversation with Alvin Clark, a trash collector employed by the City of Pasadena. According to Clark, Sirhan had expressed his concern about how the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. would effect "Negro people and how the Negroes would vote in the coming election." Clark testified at trial that he told Sirhan he was going to vote for Senator Kennedy and Sirhan responded by saying, "What do you want to vote for that son-of-a-b for?

Because I'm planning on shooting him." Clark then told Sirhan that Senator Kennedy had paid the expenses of bringing Martin Luther King's body back from Tennessee and that, "you will be killing one of the best men in the country." Clark remembered that Sirhan stated that Senator Kennedy had done this merely for the publicity involved, and that this conversation had occurred in mid-April, 1968. On the evening of the election, June 4, an hour or two prior to Senator Kennedy's speech in the Embassy Ballroom, a member of the Senator's staff, Judy Royer, observed Sirhan in the area to the rear of the Embassy Ballroom stage. Because Sirhan was not wearing a press badge or staff badge he was asked to leave, and he turned and walked toward the doors leading out to the Embassy Ballroom. Shortly before midnight, as Senator Kennedy took the service elevator down to the pantry area in the rear of the Embassy Ballroom, Jesus Perez, a kitchen helper at the Ambassador, and Martin Petrusky, a waiter, observed Senator Kennedy as he passed through the pantry on the way to the Embassy Ballroom, where about 500 people awaited his speech.

Both kitchen personnel observed Sirhan in the pantry at this time. Sirhan inquired whether Senator Kennedy would be "coming back through this way." Both hotel employees replied that they did not know, and testified that Sirhan remained in the area of the pantry close to Perez at the corner of a serving table. On June 4, 1968, Kennedy scored a major victory in his drive toward the Democratic presidential nomination when he won primaries in South Dakota and in California. He addressed his supporters in the early morning hours in the Embassy Ballroom at the Ambassador Hotel. Upon concluding his address at approximately 12:15 a.m. (June 5). Senator Kennedy was escorted off the platform toward the Colonial Room, where he was to meet the press. Karl Uecker, assistant Maitre d' at the Ambassador Hotel, led the Senator through the pantry area behind the Embassy Ballroom. In the pantry area, Senator Kennedy stopped and shook hands with some of the kitchen workers, including Perez and Petrusky. At that time Sirhan appeared and began to fire his .22 caliber revolver at Senator Kennedy. Several shots were fired in rapid succession.

Uecker attempted to grab the weapon from Sirhan, and Senator Kennedy fell to the floor of the pantry. A struggle ensued as those present attempted to immobilize and disarm Sirhan. Roosevelt Grier, Rafer Johnson, George Plimpton, Jess Unruh, and other members of Kennedy's entourage arrived seconds later. Later that night Rafer Johnson turned the weapon over to the LAPD., and it was booked into the property division. While Sirhan was being held in the pantry awaiting the arrival of the Los Angeles Police Department, Rafer Johnson asked Sirhan repeatedly, "Why did you do it?" Sirhan is reported to have replied, "Let me explain" or "I can explain." At this time Sirhan also remarked in answer to Jess Unruh's question "Why him?", "I did it for my country," and a few seconds later, "It is too late". Upon his arrival at Central Receiving Hospital that night, Robert Kennedy had been totally inert and was not breathing, although he did have an oxygen mask over his face. Dr. V. Faustin Bazilauskas, the attending physician, felt no heartbeat and administered an external cardiac massage.

Senator Kennedy's breathing, pulse, and heartbeat resumed within a few minutes. After an adrenalin injection ,the Senator's condition rapidly improved. The medical staff then began to attend also to the five other victims. Half an hour after Senator Kennedy's arrival at the emergency hospital, his condition had stabilized sufficiently to permit his transportation to Good Samaritan Hospital, two blocks away, where he could be examined by a neurosurgeon and a chest surgeon. Surgery was performed, but Senator Kennedy died at 1:44 a.m., on June 6, 1968. Dr. Thomas Noguchi, Coroner and Chief Medical Examiner of Los Angeles County and two deputy medical examiners, performed an autopsy on Senator Kennedy's body between 3:00 a.m. and 9:15 a.m., on June 6. It was disclosed that the gunshot wound to the head, in the right mastoid, had penetrated the brain and was the cause of death. The bullet had fractured the skull and had itself been shattered. According to Dr.

Noguchi, powder burns on the right ear indicated that the muzzle distance between the weapon and the ear at the time of the firing was 1 to 1-1/2 inches. On April 23, 1969, Sirhan Sirhan was sentenced to death in California's gas chamber. The death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972, after the California Supreme Court ,in its People v. Anderson decision, invalidated all pending death sentences imposed in California prior to 1972. FBI FILES 14,184 pages of FBI files dating from May 1968 to November 1978. Included among the many topics covered in the files regarding the assassination of Robert Kennedy are: The confusion during the aftermath of the shooting. Statements phoned into the FBI by the public after the shooting of Robert Kennedy. Interviews with witnesses and members of Robert Kennedy's party. Attention to Sirhan's brother. Ethel Kennedy's desire to not be interviewed by the FBI or LAPD. A chronology of events. Interviews of Dr. Stanley Abo, who first attended to Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

Alleged statement made by Sirhan in the Golden Garter Bar, Alhambra, California, in Late May 1968, "We will wait till he gets into town and then we will get him." Investigation conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department, at Good Samaritan Hospital. Investigation of the "Woman in the Polka-dot Dress." Investigation concerning alleged statement between two unknown males speaking in Arabic at Robert Kennedy's headquarters on June 3, 1968, in Los Angeles, heard as, "Well, we didn't catch up with him last night, but we will tonight." Notebooks found in Sirhan Sirhan's room, that included entries such as, "May 18, 9:45 a.m. 1968 My determination to eliminate R.F.K. is becoming more and more of an unshakable obsession... R.F.K. must die... R.F.K. must be killed... Robert F. Kennedy must be assassinated before 5 June 68..." A 1971 report by Los Angeles District Attorney Joseph P. Busch concerning allegations of improper procedures by Los Angeles Police Department criminalist DeWayne Wolfer in the Sirhan case.

Other topics covered in the reports, memos, and telegrams include: Arrest and confinement of Sirhan Sirhan. Search of Sirhan's room. Tracking of the gun used in the shooting. Investigation concerning alleged purchases of ammunition by Sirhan at Lock, Stock and Barrel Gun Shop, San Gabriel, California. Background, education, employment, associates, and acquaintances of Sirhan Sirhan. Background of Sirhan's family. Interviews of members of Sirhan's family. Interviews of individuals in the area of the shooting. Other victims of the shooting. Interviews of individuals registered as guests at the Ambassador Hotel. Physical evidence taken into custody. Interview of employees of the Ambassador Hotel. The transportation of Senator Kennedy's ambulance to Central Receiving Hospital. Investigation of Sirhan's activity at the San Gabriel Valley Gun Club. Neighborhood investigation in Pasadena, California. Prosecutive actions concerning the Sirhan case. Records from the Pasadena Police Department. Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office SPECIAL COUNSEL Report on the Assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy In March 1977, Thomas F.

Kranz, the Special Counsel to the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office, published a 137 page report concerning his findings regarding a review of the investigation of the assassination of Robert Kennedy. This report presents observations and conclusions of the Special Counsel appointed by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on August 12, 1975 to investigate independently the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy. It covers the chronology, history, and narrative of facts of the trial, investigations, and ballistic hearings. The report addresses conspiracy theories. The disc contains a text transcript of all recognizable text embedded into the graphic image of each page of each document, creating a searchable finding aid. Text searches can be done across all files on the disc Assassination of Robert Kennedy By Jennifer Rosenberg Updated April 05, 2016. Shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was shot three times by Palestinian immigrant Sirhan Sirhan after giving a speech at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. Robert Kennedy died of his wounds 26 hours later. Robert Kennedy's assassination later led to Secret Service protection for all future major presidential candidates .

The Assassination On June 4, 1968, popular Democratic Party presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy waited all day for the election results to come in from the Democratic primary in California. At 11:30 p.m., Kennedy, his wife Ethel, and the rest of his entourage left the Royal Suite of the Ambassador Hotel and headed downstairs to the ballroom, where approximately 1,800 supporters waited for him to give his victory speech. After giving his speech and ending with, "Now on to Chicago, and let's win there!" Kennedy turned and exited the ballroom through a side door that led to a kitchen pantry. continue reading below our video What are the Seven Wonders of the World Kennedy was using this pantry as a shortcut to reach the Colonial Room, where the press were waiting for him. As Kennedy travelled down this pantry corridor, which was filled with people trying to catch a glimpse of the potential future president, 24-year-old, Palestinian-born Sirhan Sirhan stepped up to Robert Kennedy and opened fire with his .22 pistol. While Sirhan was still firing, bodyguards and others tried to contain the gunman; however, Sirhan managed to fire all eight bullets before being subdued.

Six people were hit. Robert Kennedy fell to the floor bleeding. Speechwriter Paul Shrade had been hit in the forehead. Seventeen-year old Irwin Stroll was hit in the left leg. ABC director William Weisel was hit in the stomach. Reporter Ira Goldstein's hip was shattered. Artist Elizabeth Evans was also grazed on her forehead. However, most of the focus was on Kennedy. As he lay bleeding, Ethel rushed to his side and cradled his head. Busboy Juan Romero brought over some rosary beads and placed them in Kennedy's hand. Kennedy, who had been seriously hurt and looked in pain, whispered, "Is everybody all right?" Dr. Stanley Abo quickly examined Kennedy at the scene and discovered a hole just below his right ear. Robert Kennedy Rushed to the Hospital An ambulance first took Robert Kennedy to the Central Receiving Hospital, which was located just 18 blocks away from the hotel. However, since Kennedy needed brain surgery, he was quickly transferred to Good Samaritan Hospital , arriving around 1 a.m. It was here that doctors discovered two additional bullet wounds, one under his right armpit and another just one-and-a-half inches lower.

Kennedy underwent a three-hour brain surgery, in which doctors removed bone and metal fragments. Over the next few hours, however, Kennedy's condition continued to worsen. At 1:44 a.m. on June 6, 1968, Robert Kennedy died from his wounds at age 42. The nation was severely shocked at the news of yet another assassination of a major public figure. Robert Kennedy was the third major assassination of the decade, following the murders of Robert's brother, John F. Kennedy , five years earlier and of the great civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. just two months earlier. Robert Kennedy was buried near his brother, President John F. Kennedy, in Arlington Cemetery . What Happened to Sirhan Sirhan? Once police arrived at the Ambassador Hotel, Sirhan was escorted to police headquarters and questioned. At the time, his identity was unknown since he was carrying no identifying papers and refused to give his name. It wasn't until Sirhan's brothers saw a picture of him on TV that the connection was made. It turned out that Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was born in Jerusalem in 1944 and emigrated to the U.S.

with his parents and siblings when he was 12 years old. Sirhan eventually dropped out of community college and worked a number of odd jobs, including as a groom at the Santa Anita Racetrack. Once the police had identified their captive, they searched his house and found handwritten notebooks. Much of what they found written inside was incoherent, but amidst the rambling they found "RFK must die" and "My determination to eliminate RFK is becoming more [and] more of an unshakable obsession...[He] must be sacrificed for the cause of the poor exploited people." Sirhan was given a trial, in which he was tried for murder (of Kennedy) and assault with a deadly weapon (for the others that were shot). Although he pleaded not guilty, Sirhan Sirhan was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death on April 23, 1969. Sirhan was never executed, however, because in 1972 California abolished the death penalty and commuted all death sentences to life in prison. Sirhan Sirhan remains imprisoned in Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California. Conspiracy Theories Just as in the assassinations of John F.

Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., many people believe there was also a conspiracy involved in the murder of Robert Kennedy. For Robert Kennedy's assassination, there seem to be three main conspiracy theories that are based on inconsistencies found in the evidence against Sirhan Sirhan. Second Shooter The first conspiracy involves the location of the fatal shot. Los Angeles Coroner Thomas Noguchi conducted the autopsy on Robert Kennedy's body and discovered that not only had Kennedy died from the shot that entered just below and behind his right ear, but that there were scorch marks around the entry wound. This meant that the shot must have come from behind Kennedy and that the muzzle of the gun must have been within an inch or so of Kennedy's head when it was fired. By nearly all accounts, Sirhan had been in front of Kennedy and had never gotten closer than several feet. Could there have been a second shooter?

Woman in a Polka-Dot Skirt The second piece of evidence that easily lends itself to conspiracy theories is the multiple witnesses who saw a young woman wearing a polka-dot skirt running from the hotel with another man, exuberantly exclaiming, "We shot Kennedy!" Other witnesses say they saw a man who looked like Sirhan talking to a woman in a polka-dot skirt earlier in the day. The police reports bypassed this evidence, believing that in the chaos that followed the shooting, it was more likely the couple was crying out, "They shot Kennedy!" Hypno-Programming The third takes a bit more of a stretch of the imagination but is one advocated by Sirhan's lawyers during pleas for parole. This theory claims that Sirhan was "hypno-programmed" (i.e. hypnotized and then told what to do by others). If so, this would explain why Sirhan asserts that he can't remember any of the events from that night. Today in history: Robert F. Kennedy shot June 5th, 1968 - AOL News Today in history: Robert F. Kennedy shot June 5th, 1968 Before you go, we thought you'd like these...

Morgan Giordano, AOL.com Jun 5th 2015 4:59AM On Thursday, Jeb Bush dropped hints via Twitter about his 2016 ambitions, making him the third Bush to vie for the presidential crown. 47 years ago, another member of a political dynasty was trying to pave his way to the White House. On June 4th, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy, a U.S. senator and brother of assassinated president John F. Kennedy, won the California Democratic primary election. Later that night, he celebrated his victory with supporters at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. At 12:50 a.m. PDT, Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan, a 24-year-old Palestinian, open fired on the candidate, shooting him critically four times. Sirhan was wrestled to the ground and arrested while Kennedy was rushed to the hospital. RFK fought for his life, but died a day later at the age of 42. 5 PHOTOS Robert F. Kennedy (life, assassination) See Gallery Today in history: Robert F.

Kennedy shot June 5th, 1968 16th March 1938: Joseph Patrick Kennedy (1888 - 1969), the American Ambassador and financier with his wife and five of their nine children at the Princes Gate home in London. Left to right: Kathleen, Edward (who became a Democratic senator), Joseph Kennedy, wife Rose Kennedy, Patricia (1924 - 2006), Jean and Robert, who became a Democratic senator before his assassination. (Photo by H. F. Davis/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images) circa 1964: Outside his residence at number 10 Downing Street, London, the British prime minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home, right, shakes hands with Robert Kennedy, US attorney general, and brother of the assassinated American president. Kennedy is in London for talks with the British government. (Photo by Kent Gavin/Keystone/Getty Images) A family pay their respects at the John F Kennedy Memorial after the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy, Runnymede, Surrey, England, 6th June 1968.

(Photo by Tilbury/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) 6th June 1969: Mrs Stephen Smith and her daughters place flowers on the grave of her late brother, Senator Robert F. Kennedy following a memorial service at the grave site on the first anniversary of the late Senatorfs death. (Photo by Gene Forte/Keystone/Getty Images) Up Next Bobby Kennedy is assassinated - Jun 05, 1968 - HISTORY.com Bobby Kennedy is assassinated Publisher A+E Networks Senator Robert Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles after winning the California presidential primary. Immediately after he announced to his cheering supporters that the country was ready to end its fractious divisions, Kennedy was shot several times by the 22-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan. He died a day later. The summer of 1968 was a tempestuous time in American history. Both the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement were peaking. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in the spring, igniting riots across the country. In the face of this unrest, President Lyndon B. Johnson decided not to seek a second term in the upcoming presidential election.

Robert Kennedy, John’s younger brother and former U.S. Attorney General, stepped into this breach and experienced a groundswell of support. Kennedy was perceived by many to be the only person in American politics capable of uniting the people. He was beloved by the minority community for his integrity and devotion to the civil rights cause. After winning California’s primary, Kennedy was in the position to receive the Democratic nomination and face off against Richard Nixon in the general election. As star athletes Rafer Johnson and Roosevelt Grier accompanied Kennedy out a rear exit of the Ambassador Hotel, Sirhan Sirhan stepped forward with a rolled up campaign poster, hiding his .22 revolver. He was only a foot away when he fired several shots at Kennedy. Grier and Johnson wrestled Sirhan to the ground, but not before five bystanders were wounded. Grier was distraught afterward and blamed himself for allowing Kennedy to be shot. Sirhan, who was born in Palestine, confessed to the crime at his trial and received a death sentence on March 3, 1969. However, since the California State Supreme Court invalidated all death penalty sentences in 1972, Sirhan has spent the rest of his life in prison.

According to the New York Times, he has since said that he believed Kennedy was “instrumental” in the oppression of Palestinians. Hubert Humphrey ended up running for the Democrats in 1968, but lost by a small margin to Nixon. Related Videos Robert Francis Kennedy, United States Senator Robert Francis Kennedy Attorney General of the United States U.S. Senator - Presidential Candidate Born at Boston, Massachusetts, November 20, 1925, he served as a Seaman Second Class (SN2) in the United States Navy during World War II. He was campaign manager for John F. Kennedy when he sought the Presidency in 1960. He served as Attorney General in his brother's administration from January 1961 until his resignation on September 3, 1964, to become a candidate for the United States Senate from New York. He was elected as a Democrat and served from January 3, 1965 until his death. He died from the effects of an assassin's bullets on June 6, 1968 at Los Angeles, California while campaigning for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States.

He was buried in Section 45 of Arlington National Cemetery, just steps from his brother's gravesite, in a very rare night burial. On June 8th, 1968, the day of Bobby's funeral, another Kennedy brother, U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy, eulogized: "My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it. "Those of us, who loved him and who take him to his rest today pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will someday come to pass for all the world. "As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him: 'Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream things that never were and say why not.'" November 20, 2001 Bush Renames Justice Building in Honor of Robert F. Kennedy In a ceremony rich with poignant memories and political twists, President Bush renamed the Justice Department building today in honor of Robert F.

Kennedy, who served as attorney general from 1961 to 1964. "Robert Kennedy was not a hard man, but he was a tough man," Mr. Bush said on what would have been Robert Kennedy's 76th birthday. And while he was not the longest serving head of the Justice Department, "few have filled their term here with so much energy," the president said. Mr. Bush and Attorney General John D. Ashcroft said Kennedy's non compromising battles against racial injustice and organized crime exemplified what an attorney general should be. "To millions who never knew him," Mr. Bush said, "he's still an example of kindness and courage." The renaming of the Justice Department headquarters was accomplished by Mr. Bush's executive order. But Mr. Ashcroft said today's event was much more than a renaming. "We are rededicating the Justice Department to the cause he served," Mr. Ashcroft said. Robert Kennedy's widow, Ethel, sat near Mr. Bush and Mr. Ashcroft and was warmly embraced by the president. Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts was there, along with various other members of the Kennedy clan. Several former attorneys general also attended. Joseph P.

Kennedy 2nd, one of Robert Kennedy's 11 children, said his father was "tough, smart, utterly unafraid" and, yes, stubborn at times. "He forced every American to look into his heart and see what was right ï¿½ and do something about it," he said. A former congressman with hair whiter than his father's ever was, Joseph Kennedy is 49, or seven years older than his father's age in 1968, when he was a senator from New York and seeking the Democratic presidential nomination. He was shot to death on June 5, 1968, after winning the California primary. Today's ceremony bridged partisan divides. Joseph Kennedy warmly thanked the Republican president for honoring his father and said, "Your strength since Sept. 11 has been a profile in leadership." Mr. Ashcroft said Robert Kennedy was a man who embraced "causes, struggles, principles that transcend us." Kennedy was a man who wanted "justice for all Americans," Mr. Ashcroft said.

"He was unafraid of calling his enemies evil." In an odd coincidence, the Justice Department ceremony came a few hours after one at which Robert Kennedy's daughter Kerry Cuomo criticized the Bush administration for giving broad new powers to the police and prosecutors to fight terrorism. Ms. Cuomo, who is married to Andrew Cuomo, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton, spoke at an event honoring Darci Frigo, a Brazilian lawyer and land-reform advocate who won this year's Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award. Addressing her daughter Cara, Ms. Cuomo said, "Cara, if anyone tries to tell you this is the type of justice your grandpa would embrace, don't you believe it." In his time, Robert Kennedy was seen by his critics as driven and vindictive, willing to do almost anything in pursuit of his enemies. To his admirers, he was viewed as a man and politician committed to helping the poor and stamping out injustice ï¿½ a man who embraced causes "worth the passion of life," as Mr. Ashcroft put it. Mr.

Ashcroft, in fact, has defended the Bush administration's arrest-and-detention tactics and, to justify them, has invoked memories of the crime-fighting approach of an earlier attorney general ï¿½ Robert Kennedy. Before today's Justice Department ceremony, several members of the Kennedy family went to Arlington National Cemetery, just across the Potomac River in Virginia. Robert Kennedy's grave is near that of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated 38 years ago this Thursday. Kneeling again next to RFK By Steve Lopez Courtesy of The Los Angeles Times November 21, 2010 Juan Romero, a busboy at the Ambassador Hotel, crouches beside the mortally wounded Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968. On Saturday, on what would have been Kennedy's 85th birthday, Romero visited the slain senator's grave site at Arlington National Cemetery. In 1968, 17-year-old busboy Juan Romero held Robert Kennedy's hand as the senator lay dying at the Ambassador Hotel. On what would have been RFK's 85th birthday, Romero visits his grave at Arlington National Cemetery.

By Steve Lopez As a skinny teenage busboy, Juan Romero knelt beside a mortally wounded Bobby Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel. On Saturday morning, more than 42 years later, he knelt again, this time beside RFK's grave on what would have been Kennedy's 85th birthday. Romero was wearing a suit for the first time in his life, saying it was the proper way to show his respect for a man whose memory he has tried to honor by living a life of tolerance and humility. Getting up the courage to visit Arlington National Cemetery was not easy for Romero, a construction worker from San Jose who has been haunted for decades by the events of June 5, 1968. Under a soft blue sky, with fall colors exploding across the velvety slopes of the cemetery, Romero walked off to be alone and have one last good cry before visiting the grave. "Sorry," he apologized to his daughter, Elda, and friend, Rigo Chacon, who had made the trip with him from California. "If I can get it out of the way now...." Maybe a good cry would help him keep his composure, he said, when he finally stood at the grave.

I first wrote about Romero in 1998, on the 30th anniversary of the RFK assassination, and was struck by his decency and spirit of goodwill. For years, he had avoided talking about his small part in a national tragedy, but he came to believe it was his duty to speak up about his own take on Kennedy's legacy, in part because hatred and small-mindedness often pollute the national conversation. Romero's family moved to California from Mexico when he was 10. He lived in projects for a while and might have gotten caught up in the gang life except that his stepfather yanked him out of that world and helped get him a job at the Ambassador Hotel. When Kennedy called for room service a few nights before the California primary, Romero paid off another busboy for the privilege of delivering his food. Even though he was just 17, Romero knew that RFK was a man of empathy who had walked with Cesar Chavez, and he felt more accepted as an immigrant ï¿½ more American ï¿½ just knowing that Kennedy might become president. When Kennedy shook Romero's hand, in the presidential suite, Juan was transformed.

In that firm grip, he felt appreciated, he felt whole, he felt like a man. Two nights later, when Kennedy won the primary, Juan raced to the Ambassador pantry and shook RFK's hand again as the candidate went to deliver his victory speech. After the speech, Romero pressed through the crowd again, his pride swelling. Once more, he shook Kennedy's hand. And then came the gunshot. Four and a half years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and two months after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby lay dying from an assassin's bullet. He was shot while holding Romero's hand. At Arlington on Saturday, Romero, now 60, walked slowly. His chest was tight and his shoulders stiff as he made his way toward the simple, small white cross that marks RFK's grave. He had wept the night before as he anticipated this moment, telling me how he had refused to wash Kennedy's dried blood off his hand.

On the day after the shooting, as he was sitting on the bus on the way to Roosevelt High, a woman, reading the Los Angeles Times, looked at a picture in the paper of a young busboy in a crisp white uniform, a mask of disbelief on his face as he tried to help Kennedy up off the floor. "This is you," the woman said to him, and Romero looked away in horror. Forty-two years later, as Romero approached the grave, his friend Chacon stood at a respectful distance, knowing Romero had to do this in his own way. Chacon, a retired TV newsman, had seen Romero break down many times over the years as he relived the trauma. Chacon had finally suggested he visit Arlington for the sake of his own healing. Romero holds himself at least partly responsible for Kennedy's death, and in his private moment with Kennedy now, he wanted to ask forgiveness. If he hadn't been so intent on shaking Kennedy's hand, he told me, he might have seen and stopped the assassin. He would have taken the bullet himself, he said, if Kennedy could have been spared. I told Romero it's time he let go of the guilt.

RFK, a man of peace, was killed by Sirhan Sirhan, a man of violence and rage. There's no way to make sense of that, but I urged him to listen to his buddy, Chacon, who reminds him that in a moment of tragedy, Juan did a humane thing. He didn't run, he didn't take cover. He tried to help, thinking perhaps that Kennedy had merely been pushed out of harm's way and hit his head on the concrete. When the young busboy realized the situation was grave, he took his own rosary beads out of his shirt pocket, twisted them around Kennedy's hand and prayed for him. On Saturday, Romero stood silently over the cross, his hands clasped, staring down at the small gravestone. He spoke softly, telling Kennedy how much he loved his country and tried to honor the ideals Kennedy preached. Bobby Kennedy was a complicated man who had many critics on both the left and the right.

But as Romero knelt at the grave and broke down once more, it was for the Kennedy he knew, the one whose words are engraved on a wall near his resting place: "What we need in the United States is not division ï¿½ not hatred ï¿½ not violence or unlawfulness, but love and wisdom and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country.... Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to take the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world...." Romero walked away from the grave with perhaps a small piece of his burden lifted. He briefly toured the graves of John and Ted Kennedy, guided by Rep. Mike Honda (D-San Jose) and Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), the son of Ted. Talking, however briefly, to a Kennedy about RFK's commitment to social justice seemed to help Romero find some peace. "It's hard to say goodbye," Romero said before leaving Arlington. But clearly he was pleased that he had knelt, once more, beside Bobby Kennedy.

"I want him to know he's remembered." Photo (c) Michael Robert Patterson, July 1997 "It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped each time a man stands up for an ideal or acts to improve the lot of others or strikes out against injustice he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest wall of oppression and resistance." Robert F. Kennedy, South Africa, 1966 "Some men see things as they are and ask 'Why?' I dream things that never were and ask, 'Why not?'" Robert F. Kennedy, 1968 Robert Francis Kennedy: Attorney General, Senator and Heir of the New Frontier In his brief but extraordinary political career, the 42-year-old, Massachusetts-born Robert Francis Kennedy was Attorney General of the United States under two Presidents and Senator from New York. In those high offices he exerted an enormous influence on the nation's domestic and foreign affairs, first as the closest confidant of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, and then, after Mr.

Kennedy's assassination in 1963, as the immediate heir to his New Frontier policies. The Kennedy name, which John had made magical, devolved on Robert, enabling him to win a Senate seat from a state in which he had little or no previous association. The Kennedy aura also permitted him to campaign this year for the Democratic Presidential nomination and to gain important victories in the preference primaries. Wherever he went he drew crowds by evoking, through his Boston accent, his gestures and his physical appearance, a remarkable and nostalgic likeness to his elder brother. At the same time Mr. Kennedy called forth sharply opposed evaluations of himself. For those who found him charming, brilliant and sincerely devoted to the welfare of his country there were others who vehemently asserted that he was calculating, overly ambitious and ruthless. Those who praised him regarded his candidacy for his party's Presidential nomination this year as proof of his selflessness. They quoted with approval his announcement on March 16, in which he said: "I do not run for the Presidency merely to oppose any man but to propose new policies.

I run because I am convinced that this country is on a perilous course and because I have such strong feelings about what must be done, and I feel that I'm obliged to do all I can." On the other hand, those who questioned his motives pointed out that his candidacy was posed only four days after the New Hampshire primary, in which Senator Eugene J. McCarthy had demonstrated the political vulnerability of President Johnson. Further, Mr. Kennedy's critics said, he had declared only as recently as January 30: "I have told friends and supporters who are urging me to run that I would not oppose President Johnson under any foreseeable circumstances." Sure He'd Do 'the Right Thing' Mr. Kennedy's partisans tended to ignore his inconsistencies or to belittle them. And even many voters who expressed reservations about him were certain that, in public office, he would do "the right thing." This belief was underlined, especially among Negroes and the poor, because of the earnestness with which he pleaded their cause.

Describing the reaction of one ghetto throng in California, Tom Wicker wrote in The New York Times of June 2: "The crowds surge in alarmingly, children leap and shriek and grown men risk the wheels of Kennedy's car just to pound his arm or grasp his hand. Moving through the sleazy back streets of Oakland, he repeatedly stopped traffic; for six blocks along East 14th Street, his car could barely creep along." Contrasting with such frenzied warmth was what Fortune magazine called last March "the implacable hostility toward him in the business community." The magazine quoted one Dallas businessman, a leading Democrat, as saying: "I had great respect for his brother Jack, but I would not vote for Bobby." The business community, according to Fortune, condemned Mr. Kennedy as immature and irresponsible. Business, it was said, was disquieted "by the reputation for radicalism that he has developed." To criticism he could respond with asperity or angry chilliness. To the fervor and adulation of his supporters he seemed curiously aloof, exhibiting neither pleasure nor fright. Those close to Mr.

Kennedy noticed that his eyes rarely sparkled, but, instead, were sad and withdrawn and that his manner, despite a grin, was unemotional. Mr. Kennedy's campaign speeches (as well as those he delivered in the Senate) were, for the most part, devoid of oratorical fire and flourish. He spoke in an even baritone; there were no crescendos and little outward expansiveness. His only gestures were to chop the air with his right hand for emphasis or to brush back his shaggy forelock when it slipped down over his forehead. His campaign humor was self-deprecating, an effort to divert criticism to his account. For example, he recently asked a rally in Fort Wayne, Indiana, whether the city would vote for him. Otherwise, he went on, he and Ethel and all of their children would have to go on relief. "It'll be less expensive," he continued, deadpan, "just to send us to the White House. We'll arrange it so all 10 kids won't be there at once, and we won't need to expand the place. I'll send some of them away to school -- and I'll make one of them Attorney General." Mr.

Kennedy was an indefatigable campaigner, able to put in a 16-hour day of stress and tension and then sleep briefly before going through another equally strenuous day. Indeed, he seldom seemed to relax, whether he was campaigning or not, for he played with as much concentration as he worked. He was, for instance, a vigorous touch football participant, a hardy skier, a pace-setting mountain climber and a swimmer who did not mind plunging into the cold Pacific surf on an Oregon beach, an exploit few in that state ever attempted. Mr. Kennedy was so constantly in motion that he prompted some observers to say that he fled introspection, that he did not sit down with himself and figure out what he truly was and what he wanted to achieve. Commenting on this public and private extroversion in "The Heir Apparent," William V. Shannon wrote in 1967: "In his compulsive athleticism, his reckless risk-taking, his aggressiveness, he seems to be driven by something not accounted for by the realities which engage him and not compatible with the high seriousness of his public ambitions." 'You Have to Struggle' Mr.

Kennedy was, of course, aware of what was said about him, for he not only read omnivorously but he also employed a large staff of experts and advisers to brief and counsel him. He often conceded that he was aggressive, explaining semi humorously: "I was the seventh of nine children. And when you come from that far down, you have to struggle to survive." Robert Kennedy was born Nov. 20, 1925, in Brookline, Massachusetts, a fashionable suburb of Boston, the son of Joseph and Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy. His father, the son of poor South Boston parents, was then already amassing a fortune in the stock market and associated speculative enterprises. Home only at intervals (the family moved in 1926 to Riverdale and then to Bronxville, N.Y.), he left the day-to-day management of the family to his capable wife, who was the daughter of John F. (Honey Fitz) Fitzgerald, who served three terms in the House of Representatives and was Mayor of Boston. When Robert was born, his brother Joseph Jr. was 10 and John was 8.

(Edward was born in 1932.) Thus Robert passed his early years as the little brother, with two older brothers and five young sisters -- Rosemary, Kathleen, Eunice, Patricia and Jean. "He was the smallest and thinnest, and we feared he might grow up puny and girlish," his mother recalled, adding: "We soon realized there was no fear of that." Not only were Robert's sisters tomboyish, but he was also prodded to competitiveness by his father and by Joseph Jr., who served as a surrogate father to his siblings. "Joe taught me to sail, to swim, to play football and baseball," he remembered. Moreover, Robert's father laid down strict rules of conduct: Never take second best; when the going gets tough, the tough get going; passivity is intolerable. Although Robert as a youth was overshadowed by his older brothers, he displayed grim determination to succeed. A classmate at Milton Academy, where he prepared for Harvard, said: "It was much tougher in school for him than the others -- socially, in football, with studies." Nonetheless, Robert kept up.

He was a Harvard sophomore when Joseph Jr., on whom the family had pinned its political hopes, was killed in a Navy plane over the English Channel in 1944. Deeply affected, Robert traveled to Washington on his own several months later and persuaded Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal to assign him as a seaman to a destroyer newly named for his brother. Robert spent the remainder of the war in the Caribbean, returning to Harvard in 1946. There his tenacity gained him a place as end on the football team, although he weighed only 160 pounds and stood 5 feet 9 inches tall. After graduation in 1948, he went to law school at the University of Virginia, where he took his degree in 1951. That same year, after admission to the Massachusetts bar, he joined the criminal division of the Department of Justice in Washington and spent two years prosecuting a somewhat dreary succession of graft and income tax evasion cases without notable splash. Resigned to Run Campaign. He resigned in 1952 to manage the campaign of his brother John for United States Senator from Massachusetts.

The most impressive features of that race were the Kennedy organization's painstaking attention to detail and the vast amount of money it spent. Both later became hallmarks of Robert Kennedy's campaign methods. Mr. Kennedy's first (and ultimately most controversial) venture into the public limelight occurred in 1953, when he was named one of 15 assistant counsel to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. His immediate superior was Roy M. Cohn, the group's chief counsel. Above them both was Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, Republican of Wisconsin, whose name was soon attached to the committee. It rapidly acquired a malodorous reputation among liberals, intellectuals and civil libertarians for its chivvying of witnesses in its investigations of asserted Communist conspiracies and plots in the Government. Robert had obtained his job through his father, who had contributed money to Senator McCarthy's anti-Communist campaign. He got along well with the Senator, a circumstance that plagued Mr. Kennedy when he became, years later, a professing liberal. After a dispute with Mr. Cohn over the committee staff, Mr.

Kennedy resigned his post in mid-1953, but rejoined it in February, 1954, as counsel to the Democratic minority. The following year -- after the Army-McCarthy hearings -- he succeeded Mr. Cohn as chief counsel and staff director when Senator John L. McClellan, Democrat of Arkansas, became committee chairman. In that post he pursued investigations into alleged Communist influence and helped develop some of the conflict-of-interest cases involving personalities in the Eisenhower Administration. Senator McClellan liked him, for he was a persistent questioner of witnesses and a resolute investigator. One result was that the Senator chose Mr. Kennedy as chief counsel of the Senate Select committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field when it was organized in January, 1957. Mr. Kennedy immediately began a headline-making inquiry into the affairs of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, then under the presidency of Dave Beck. Beck was later imprisoned for filing false income tax returns. Accused of Anti labor Views Mr.

Kennedy's sharp questioning of Beck before the Senate Rackets Committee, as the McClellan group was generally known, drew down on him the accusation that he was anti labor at worst and unsympathetic to the working man at best. This charge was compounded when he investigated James R. Hoffa, Beck's successor, in 1958. Hoffa, who was eventually convicted and jailed for jury tampering and misuse of union funds, disliked Mr. Kennedy, calling him "a young, dim-witted, curly-headed smart-aleck" and "a ruthless monster." Calm and polite as the committee's counsel, Mr. Kennedy nevertheless did not conceal his disdain for Hoffa. His reaction to an involved and obscure answer was often a sarcastic and disbelieving: "Oh." Later, when he was Attorney General, Mr. Kennedy continued his investigation of the 1,700,000-member teamsters union, causing Hoffa to charge that he was engaged in vendetta. Officials of other unions were also prosecuted by Mr.

Kennedy, generating a coolness of organized labor toward him that was still evident when he was campaigning for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 1968. The attitude of the trade union hierarchy, however, did not permeate to the rank and file, who generally voted for him. Mr. Kennedy left the rackets committee in 1959 to manage his brother's campaign for the Presidency. Describing the primary races of 1960, Lawrence J. Quirk, in "Robert Francis Kennedy," wrote: "Bobby kept his card file constantly replenished with information on every local leader, every county VIP, every 'bit' player in every key town. And he bore down most heavily on the states where the primary battles looked hottest: New Hampshire, Indiana, West Virginia and Wisconsin (already marked for the kill), Oregon and Nebraska. "But Bobby's strong-arm methods were not just limited to the states where the primaries were crucial. Gov. [Michael] Di Salle of Ohio, who had hoped to run as a favorite-son candidate, was soon finding himself unremittingly pressured by Bobby to endorse Jack Kennedy. The two little fighting words 'or else' hung in the air.

With a primary fight against the Kennedys -- a fight he stood to lose - a distinct possibility, Di Salle finally capitulated. 'The Kennedys play rough and they play for keeps,' he later said." As his brother's vizier, Robert Kennedy never bothered to hide his political muscle in 1960. Answering one politician's complaint, he said blandly: "I'm not running a popularity contest. It doesn't matter if they [the politicians] like me or not. Jack can be nice to them. I don't try to antagonize people but somebody has to be able to say no. If people are not getting off their behinds and working enough, how do you say that nicely? Every time you make a decision in this business you make somebody mad." In the election campaign that followed, against Richard M. Nixon, the Republican candidate, Mr. Kennedy proved as drivingly perfectionist as he had been during the primary races. He traveled the country, tightening up the party organization, settling squabbles and dismissing incompetents. He even silenced Frank Sinatra, the singer, and Walter Reuther, head of the United Auto Workers, whom he considered liabilities to his brother.

In addition to these tasks, Mr. Kennedy advised his brother on tactics. He was also responsible, according to Mr. Quirk's book, for John Kennedy's intervention in the Martin Luther King case. As Mr. Quirk related it, this is what happened: "The Rev. Martin Luther King was arrested for staging a sit-in at a department store in Atlanta, and was forthwith sentenced to four months of hard labor in a Georgia penitentiary. This event occurred a scant week before the election. Prompted Call to Mrs. King "Bobby saw to it that J.F.K. called Mrs. King to offer comfort. Then Bobby called the judge who had sentenced Dr. King. Shortly afterward, the Negro leader was freed on bail, and a member of the King family declared, 'I've got a suitcase of votes, and I'm going to take them to Mr. Kennedy and dump them in his lap.'" After John Kennedy defeated Mr. Nixon -- the popular vote margin was 119,000 out of 68 million cast -- he appointed his brother Attorney General.

Robert Kennedy was reluctant at first, saying, "Everything I do will rub off on the President." He was also sensitive to the likely charge that the appointment was nepotic John Kennedy, however, wanted his brother in the Cabinet as an absolutely loyal and dependable confidant. In public, when criticism of the appointment mounted, the President explained his choice almost flippantly. "I can't see that it's wrong to give him a little legal experience before he goes out to practice law," he said. Mr. Kennedy's term as Attorney General touched many sensitive areas of the nation's life-- civil rights, immigration, crime, labor legislation, defense of the poor, pardons, economic monopoly, juvenile delinquency and the Federal judiciary. In the opinion of his staff -- and he recruited a brilliant group that included Byron R. White, now a Supreme Court justice, and Nicholas deB. Katzenbach, now Deputy Secretary of State -- Mr. Kennedy was imaginative and inspiring. His relationship with J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, was reportedly more formal than cordial after Mr. Kennedy made it known that he was Mr. Hoover's superior in fact as well as in theory.

Conspicuously active in civil rights, Mr. Kennedy, among other achievements, exerted the Federal force that permitted James H. Meredith, a black student, to enroll in the University of Mississippi in 1962. And owing to his relationship with the President, he had a hand in virtually every phase of the Administration. "Call Bobby, get together with him and come back with an idea on this," was a frequent White House order In foreign affairs, he was an especially close adviser. He investigated the Central Intelligence Agency after the Cuban Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1961. In the Cuban missile crisis the next year he opposed a pre-emptive air strike on Cuba and advocated the policy of restrained toughness that allowed the Soviet Union to retreat gracefully. Mr. Kennedy was lunching at his home in McLean, Va., on November 22, 1963, when he was informed of his brother's assassination in Dallas. Stunned, his shoulders drooping, his face solemn, he was at the airport when the Presidential plane landed in Washington with the President's body, his widow, Jacqueline, and the new President, Lyndon B. Johnson.

During the public rites that preceded the funeral, he never left his sister-in-law's side. In the long, slow procession from the White House to St. Matthew's Cathedral, he and his brother Edward, a Senator from Massachusetts, walked on either side of her. And at Arlington National Cemetery, both brothers helped her light an eternal flame over the grace. Plunged Into Deep Grief The assassination plunged Mr. Kennedy into a deep grief that amounted virtually to melancholy. His face was a mask; sadness enveloped his eyes; he seemed to have shrunk physically, and he often walked alone, his hands dug into his jacket pockets. And for the remainder of his life he lived with thoughts of his dead brother never far from the surface of his mind. When Dr. King was assassinated earlier this year, Mr. Kennedy was speaking at a political rally. Almost by reflex action he offered the family his condolences and remarked that he could understand their feeling of sudden loss because he himself had undergone a similar shock over his brother. When his lassitude lifted, he set out to replan his political life. For a time in 1964 there was speculation that he might be President Johnson's running mate that fall.

Whatever hopes he had, however, were dispelled when Mr. Johnson ruled out all Cabinet members as Vice- Presidential material. Displeased, Mr. Kennedy resigned to run for the Senate from New York; and, establishing residence, he put into operation the political structure he had erected for his brother in 1960 and won the nomination without difficulty. His opponent was Senator Kenneth B. Keating , the incumbent Republican, who sought to picture Mr. Kennedy as a grasping carpetbagger. "Isn't the basic question 'Who can best represent the State of New York?'" Mr. Kennedy retorted. And to the charge of being sinister, he replied: "I like to be involved in politics. I like to be involved in government. I've been in politics all my life. I would like to remain in government. I don't think that's so sinister." He defeated Mr. Keating by 800,000 votes in a campaign that demonstrated the visceral appeal he had for voters. In the Senate (and a national figure in his own right) he forged a position slightly to the left of Mr. Johnson on the problems of the poor and the cities.

He also sought to develop moderately "dovish" views on the war in Vietnam, but his opposition to Mr. Johnson on this issue always remained cautious. It was so restrained, indeed, that he held back from contesting for the Presidential nomination of 1968 until after the New Hampshire primary on March 12 showed the extent of voter disaffection with the war. Thereafter, however, he fought keenly for the nomination, winning major primaries in Indiana, Nebraska and California. Campaigning with him was his wife, the former Miss Ethel Skakel of Greenwich, Connecticut, to whom he was married in 1950. Mrs. Kennedy is expecting their 11th child in January. Their other children are Kathleen Harrington, 16; Joseph Patrick, 15; Robert Francis, 15; David Anthony, 12; Mary Courtney, 11; Michael Lemoyne, 10; Mary Kerry, 6; Christopher George, 4; Matthew Maxwell, 3, and Douglas Harriman 14 months. Robert F. Kennedy, brother of President John F.

Kennedy, former attorney general, senator and presidential candidate, was shot on June 5, 1968, and died the next morning. The funeral Mass for Senator Kennedy took place at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York City, on Saturday June 8, 1968. The remains were then transported upon a slow-moving train to Washington, D.C., via Newark and Camden, N.J.; Philadelphia, Pa.; and Baltimore, Md. The railway system stopped all northbound traffic between Washington, D.C., and New York, and many people gathered along the route to pay tribute to Senator Kennedy. The long transport delayed the arrival at Union Station until 9:10 p.m., and cemetery officials quickly changed the funeral plans to accommodate an evening interment. Floodlights were placed around the open grave and service members provided 1,500 candles which were distributed to the mourners. The casket was borne from the train by 13 pallbearers, including former astronaut John Glenn, former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, family friend General Maxwell Taylor , Robert's eldest son Joe, and his brother Senator Edward Kennedy.

The procession stopped once during the drive to Arlington National Cemetery at the Lincoln Memorial where the Marine Corps Band played "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." The funeral motorcade arrived at the cemetery at 10:30 p.m. The brief grave-side service was conducted by Terence Cardinal Cooke, Archbishop of New York. Afterward the folded flag was presented to Ethel and Joe Kennedy on behalf of the United States by John Glenn. In 1971 a more-elaborate gravesite was completed, at the request of the Kennedy family, by architect I.M. Pei (who also designed the East Wing of the National Gallery of Art). The new gravesite retains the simple, white Christian cross of the earlier site, and adds a granite plaza (like JFK's gravesite which adjoins it) and two inscriptions from Senator Kennedy's most notable addresses. Senator Robert Kennedy's funeral is the only one ever to take place at night at Arlington National Cemetery. Photo Courtesy of the United States Senate Robert F. Kennedy Funeral Cards - 1968 Robert F. Kennedy Funeral - Arlington National Cemetery, 1968 Robert F.

Kennedy Memorial Services, June 1969 Collection of Michael Robert Patterson Ethel Kennedy (kneeling, L), widow of slain Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, pays her respects at the grave site of her husband along with the 2000 RFK Human Rights award winner Martin Macwan of India (kneeling, C) and his mother Reginaben Chhotubhai Parmar, at Arlington National Cemetery, November 21, 2000. Standing are RFK's daughter Rory Kennedy (L), RFK's brother Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), (C), and Gagan Sethi, a friend of Martin Macwan. November 21 is the anniversary of the RFK's birthday.

Page Updated: 22 November 2000 Page Updated: 12 May 2001 Updated: 4 November 2001 Updated: 3 March 2002 Updated: 11 June 2002 Updated: 31 August 2002 Updated: 27 April 2003 Updated: 29 February 2004 Updated: 5 December 2004 Updated: 29 May 2006 Updated: 21 November 2010 Kennedy is Dead, Victim of Assassin; Suspect, Arab Immigrant, Arraigned; Johnson Appoints Panel on Violence Kennedy is Dead, Victim of Assassin; Suspect, Arab Immigrant, Arraigned; Johnson Appoints Panel on Violence Surgery in Vain President Calls Death Tragedy, Proclaims a Day of Mourning Arab Arraigned; $250,000 Bail Set By GLADWIN HILL Special to The New York Times RELATED HEADLINES A Pall Over Politics: Murder Raises Grave Questions for Presidency Races Now and in Future Notes On Kennedy In Suspect's Home: Cite 'Necessity' to Murder Senator Before June 5,

 Anniversary of War Father of Suspect 'Sickened' by News OTHER HEADLINES Marcus Testifies De Sapio Had Role In A Con Ed Deal: Says Itkin Sought Delay of Permit to Aid Own Scheme With Ex-Tammany-Head Transit Package Submitted to City: M.T.A.

Seeks Approval of 8 New Subway Routes Jerusalem Police Clash With Arabs: Israelis Halt Procession on Anniversary of War--U.N. Council Meets on Fighting France Will Meet Tariff Deadline; Strikes Dwindling 6 In Race Guarded: Secret Service Given Campaign Security Task by President Hanoi Insists U.S. Halt Its Bombing: Aides Call Talks Response to Johnson--Suspicion Voiced of a Plot Against Kennedy Italy's Cabinet Quits As Parliament Opens Big Board Weighs 4 Special Closings Los Angeles, Thursday, June 6--Senator Robert F. Kennedy, the brother of a murdered President, died at 1:44 A.M. today of an assassin's shots. The New York Senator was wounded more than 20 hours earlier, moments after he had made his victory statement in the California primary. At his side when he died today in Good Samaritan Hospital were his wife Ethel; his sisters, Mrs. Stephen Smith and Mrs. Patricia Lawford; his bother-in-law, Stephen Smith; and his sister-in-law, Mrs. John F. Kennedy, whose husband was assassinated 4 1/2 years ago in Dallas.

In Washington, President Johnson issued a statement calling the death a tragedy. He proclaimed next Sunday a national day of mourning. The Final Report Hopes had risen slightly when more than eight hours went by without a new medical bulletin on the stricken Senator, but the grimness of the final announcement was signaled when Frank Mankiewicz, Mr. Kennedy's press secretary, walked slowly down the street in front of the hospital toward the littered gymnasium that served as press headquarters. Mr. Mankiewicz bit his lip. His shoulders slumped. He stepped to a lectern in front of a green-tinted chalkboard and bowed his head for a moment while the television lights snapped on. Then, at one minute before 2 A.M., he told of the death of Mr. Kennedy. Following is the text of the statement from Mr. Mankiewicz: "I have a short announcement to read which I will read at this time. Senator Robert Francis Kennedy died at 1:44 A.M. today, June 6, 1968. With Senator Kennedy at the time of his death was his wife, Ethel; his sisters, Mrs. Patricia Lawford and Mrs.

Stephen Smith, his brother-in-law, Stephen Smith and his sister-in-law, Mrs. John F. Kennedy. "He was 42 years old." Senator Kennedy's body will be taken to New York this morning and then to Washington. The man accused of shooting Mr. Kennedy early yesterday in a pantry of the Ambassador Hotel was identified as Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, 24 years old, who was born in Palestinian Jerusalem of Arab parentage and had lived in the Los Angeles area since 1957. Sirhan had been a clerk. $250,000 Bail Yesterday, he was hurried through an early-morning court arraignment and held in lieu of $250,000 bail. Sirhan was charged with six counts of assault with intent to murder, an offense involving a prison term of 1 to 14 years. Five other persons in addition to the 42-year-old Senator were wounded by the eight bullets from a .22-caliber revolver fired at almost point-blank range into a throng of Democratic rally celebrants surging between ballrooms in the hotel.

The shots came moments after Senator Kennedy had made a speech celebrating his victory in yesterday's Democratic Presidential primary in California. The defendant, seized moments after the shooting, refused to give the police any information about himself. He was arraigned as "John Doe." Three hours later, Mayor Samuel W. Yorty announced at a news conference at police headquarters that the defendant had been identified as Sirhan. He said the identity had been confirmed by Sirhan's brother and a second individual. Senator Kennedy, accompanied by his wife, Ethel, was wheeled into the Good Samaritan Hospital shortly after 1 A.M. yesterday after a brief stop at the Central Receiving Hospital. A score of the Senator's campaign aides swarmed around the scene. Grim Reminder Less than five years back many of them had experienced the similar tragedy that ended the life of President John F. Kennedy.

At 2:22 A.M., Senator Kennedy's campaign press secretary, Frank Mankiewicz, came out of the hospital into a throng of hundreds of news people to announce that the Senator would be taken into surgery "in five or ten minutes" for an operation of "45 minutes or an hour." One bullet had gone into the Senator's brain past the mastoid bone back of the right ear, with some fragments going near the brain stem. Another bullet lodged in the back of the neck. A third and minor wound was an abrasion on the forehead. It was after 7 A.M. when Mr. Mankiewicz reported that more than three hours of surgery had been completed, and all but one fragment of the upper bullet had been removed. The neck bullet was not removed but "is not regarded as a major problem," Mr. Mankiewicz said. He also reported that the Senator's vital signs remained about as they had been, except that he was now breathing on his own, which he had not been doing before the surgery. Then Mr.

Mankiewicz said: "There may have been an impairment of the blood supply to the mid-brain, which the doctors explained as governing certain of the vital signs--heart, eye track, level of consciousness--although not directly the thinking process." Senator Kennedy was taken from surgery to an intensive-care unit. At 2:15 P.M. Mr. Mankiewicz announced that Senator Kennedy had not regained consciousness and that a series of medical tests had been "inconclusive and don't show measurable improvement in Senator Kennedy's condition." "His condition as of 1:30 P.M. remains extremely critical," the spokesman continued. "His life forces--pulse, temperature, blood pressure and heart--remain good, and he continues to show the ability to breathe on his own, although he is being assisted by a resuscitator." The tests included X-rays and electroencephalograms. Mrs. Kennedy remained at the hospital. Mrs. John F. Kennedy arrived at the hospital at 7:30 P.M. yesterday, after a chartered plane flight from New York. A team of surgeons treating Senator Kennedy included Dr. James Poppen, head of neurosurgery at the Lahey Clinic in Boston.

He was rushed to Los Angeles in an Air Force plane on instructions from Vice President Humphrey. Mr. Humphrey and Senator Eugene J. McCarthy of Minnesota have been Senator Kennedy's rivals in the Democratic Presidential competition. Mayor Yorty said the defendant's identification had come through a brother, Adel Sirhan, after the police had traced the ownership of the .22-caliber revolver involved in the shooting to a third brother, Munir Bishari Salameh Sirhan, also known as Joe Sirhan. The weapon was traced through three owners, one in suburban Alabama, the next in Marin County, adjacent to San Francisco, and back to an 18-year-old youth in suburban Pasadena. The youth said he had sold it to "a bushy-haired guy named Joe" whom he knew only as an employee of a Pasadena department store. Detectives identified the bushy haired man as Munir Sirhan. From him, the trail led to the two other brothers, who have been living together in Pasadena.

The snubnosed .22-caliber Iver Johnson Cadet model revolver seized after the shooting was described as having been picked out of a list of 2.5 million weapons registered in California in "just seconds" after the disclosure of its serial number. This was done by a new computer used by the State Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification in Sacramento, according to State Attorney General Thomas Lynch. The defendant was arraigned at 7 A.M., unusually early, before Municipal Judge Joan Dempsey Klein on a complaint issued by District Attorney Evelle Younger after all-night consultation with the police. Deputy District Attorney William Ritzi said the case would be presented to the county grand jury on Friday. The other victims of the shooting were Paul Schrade, 43 years old, a regional director of the United Automobile and Aerospace Workers Union, a prominent Kennedy campaigner; William Weisel, 30, a unit manager for the American Broadcasting Company; Ira Goldstein, 19, an employee of Continental New Service at nearby Sherman Oaks; Mrs. Elizabeth Evans, 43, of Sangus, in Los Angeles County, and Irwin Stroll, 17. Mr.

Schrade, the most seriously wounded of the five, underwent an apparently successful operation at the Kaiser Foundation Hospital today to remove a bullet from his skull. Mr. Weisel was reported in good condition after removal of a bullet from his abdomen. The court complaint against Sirhan charged that "on or about the fifth day of June, 1968, at and in the county of Los Angeles a felony was committed by John Doe, who at the time and place aforesaid, did willfully, unlawfully and feloniously commit an assault with a deadly weapon upon Robert Francis Kennedy, a human being, with the intent then and there willfully, unlawfully, feloniously and with malice aforethought to kill and murder the said Robert Francis Kennedy." Sirhan was represented at the arraignment by the chief public defender, Richard S. Buckley. He asked Mr. Buckley to get in touch with the American Civil Liberties Union about getting private counsel for him.

Question: Who assassinated US Senator Robert F Kennedy in June 1968?
Answer: Sirhan Sirhan